Prologue

The young, bandanna-wearing boy took
a look outside the window. A long string of bright lights floated over the dark
ocean. Below him, a bustling city unfolded. The bright lights fluttered across
the ground like holy candles beckoning the lonely boy home. So this is what
heaven was like, Ryoga Hibiki thought to himself.

He just needed to get away from it
all. He needed to get far away from Tokyo. From the Tendo dojo.

From the cruel Ranma Saotome.

He was in love with Ranma. He knew
he was always attracted to guys but Ranma especially. However, he never knew
how he could tell Ranma how he really felt or how Ranma actually felt about
him. As a martial artist, he only knew how to fight. He believed that if he
could defeat Ranma, the handsome pigtailed boy would have to go out with him.
He chased Ranma all the way to China, which led him to falling into the Spring
of Drowned Pig. When he finally caught Ranma…that was a whole different story.

Of course, life with Ranma Saotome
was a fun and dramatic rollercoaster ride in itself. Ryoga’s dream man had got
himself deeper and deeper into a literal tar pit of male and female fiancées
pursuing his lover. Ranma’s father, who had his own faults, engaged his son
to the daughter of a friend. And both had suitors in both directions. Not to
mention that Ranma also was an aquatranssexual and his female side was much
popular for her flooziness.

And still Ryoga stayed with him.
He still loved Ranma on the inside. He wanted to kill Ranma at first for putting
him through miserable chapter upon chapter. But as he got to know Ranma more,
he realized that Ranma wasn’t the enemy. Ranma had been a false pawn in his
parents’ Russian Roulette, manipulated and mistreated by fiance after fiance.
He saw Ranma’s angst.

But Ranma was a man’s man. He stubbornly
shrugged off his pain, both literally and emotionally, letting it all run to
the wind. Ryoga would look at Ranma at night and wish that he could help him
out of his predicament. Ryoga had to deny those thoughts. Ryoga had to deny
it. If Ranma ever knew how I really felt and didn’t love me in return, my
heart will be broken into a million pieces.

However, Ranma had done just that.

It was a bright summer afternoon.
The last of the cherry blossoms had just floated away in Nerima, Tokyo. Genma
Saotome and Soun Tendo, the two parents who could be blamed for all the trouble,
tried to ignore their children’s fates as they played as peaceful game of Go.
However, they couldn’t ignore the crumbling foundation beneath them. Months
of constant fighting had done its damage to the Tendo dojo. The living room
foundation collapsed causing the ceiling to crash above the two elderly men.
Saotome and Tendo died instantly and peacefully after the catastrophe. The
quiet death of Tendo and Saotome paved open an exit to the chaos.

However, Ranma refused to walk into
that exit. Pre-ordered partnership or not, Ranma was in love with the bitch.
Or so he said.

That “bitch” was Akane Tendo, a young
Japanese woman who scorned Ranma and repeatedly showing little affection to
anyone. Ranma always admired Akane. She completely detested him. Ryoga knew
that. Being Akane’s pet pig, P-Chan, Ryoga was able to spy on his enemy and
see how she really felt about Ranma. He also knew some of Akane’s secrets. He
knew that Akane never loved Ranma. Their relationship was simply platonic. Following
Soun and Genma’s death, he finally confronted Ranma about the Akane issue. Ranma,
being the dumb bishounen he was, assumed that Ryoga wanted Akane. Ryoga never
wanted Akane. He was only good at acting heterosexual.

He told Ranma, “Now’s your chance
to get away from it all…why don’t you go out with your friend Ukyou?”

Ranma replied innocently, “I can’t
leave the dojo. I can’t leave Akane at this point.” Soun’s death may have liberated
him from his proposed marriage but chained him emotionally to Akane and the
Tendo family.

Ranma wanted to stay with Akane.

Ryoga’s heart shattered into pieces.
He ran away from Nerima, from the only home he knew, for three months. When
he returned, Ranma had just married Akane. He
wanted to commit suicide. He planned to drown in Jusenkyo where his curse first
began. Fortunately, Ryoga’s horrible sense of direction led him to Narita International
Airport in Tokyo. Soon, he was sitting on first class in United Airlines flight
5077 to San Francisco, CA.

He was leaving Tokyo for good.

Ryoga looked out the window once
again. The plane was landing. He could hear the plane smoothly dive deeper back
toward Earth. Blankets of pure white clouds covered the ground. With a soft
bump, the plane touched the ground. “Ladies and gentlemen, we have now arrived
in San Francisco,” the flight attendant announced. “The time now is 6:50 a.m.
and the temperature outside is 45 degrees Celsius with a slight chance of showers.
We hope that you enjoyed flying United Airlines and come fly the friendly skies
once again.”

Just as the Japanese translator started
to speak, Ryoga took one last look out the window. He was back on Earth. Another
plane was leaving for Tokyo. Ryoga looked up at the sky and saw the very same
stars that shone down on Nerima, Tokyo. He turned around and walked toward the
exit. There was no turning back now.

Goodbye Ranma.

Customs was such a bitch to go through.
By the time Ryoga was done explaining repeatedly to incompetent translators
that he was here to stay, the gloomy clouds only got gloomier over the city
of San Francisco

Ryoga felt so unprepared. What stupid
documents did I have to bring? Then he remembered the forms that he left on
the plane. After hours of interrogation, he emerged into the Arrival Gate 46
for United Airlines.

Then it suddenly hit him. He was
in a new environment. Whenever he got lost, he ended up back at Tendo dojo.
Back in the arms of that guy he used to like. He would be safe for a little
while, despite the noise of cackling fiancées and the sound of random inanimate
objects being shattered into bits (normally on Ranma’s head.) However, he wasn’t
in Tokyo and the Tendo dojo was an ocean away now.

A family of five united as the businessman
father grabbed his two little sons. An Asian man greeted his waiting Caucasian
boyfriend with roses. He had nobody.